Some basic site stats (WARNING - NERD ALERT)

Some really cool stuff comes with blogging (cool in a VERY uncool, nerdy way I mean). Take the following for instance:

• People from five countries have read this blog - Australia (duh!), United Kingdom, United States, Malaysia and Spain
• In Australia we've hit Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne (I think only capitals are reported, sorry to you country/regional folks)
• In Malaysia we hit Kuching - I put that in because I thought the name of the city sounded pretty cool
• We've had over 100 unique visitors over the past week
• It looks like most of you have returned to check for updates as there have been over 250 visits in total

Thanks to everyone who has left a comment or two. Ali has read them all and appreciates the thoughts (and laughs) that they offer.

If we don't respond to your comments, please don't feel offended. It's not email and we cannot simply hit 'reply' to get back to you (the blog comments don't automatically include your email addresses).

For all of you that are not too familiar with blogging or computers (you know who you are - CP), don't forget, you can catch up or re-read old posts by clicking on the triangles under the heading "Blog Archive" to the right of these posts. The number in brackets tells you how many posts there are under the relevant date. Simply click on a heading and the blog will take you there.

Signing off, from your advertising-free blogspot (I tried to convince Ali to let me put some advertising here but it's still under negotiation, as are the MySpace and FaceBook franchises).

Chemo 1: Day 7

Things are going fairly well and life seems to be settling back into a rhythm, although I wouldn't quite call it normal at this stage.

Ali is doing quite well, most of the nausea has gone but she still has to put up with being tired and feeling drained of energy most of the time. Certainly she is looking better than she did earlier in the week and she seems to be laughing more at the crazy stuff that the kids & I get up to. I reckon she's being a bit harsh when she says she has three kids, not just the two - it's just laughter medicine that we're trying to offer.

If you're interested in what we've been up to for the past couple of days, read on...

Saturday was spent at soccer for the boys while the girls stayed home. Harry's team didn't do so well after the long school holiday break and were slow to start their game. They played much better in the second half and scored more goals than the other team but it wasn't enough to catch up and the other team ended the game with 6 goals to 4.

Annelise has been carrying a cough around for the last couple of days and missed out on netball on Saturday as it was simply too cold to send her out. Still, she was feeling well enough to go to jazz ballet later in the day so she wasn't too bad.

The big highlight of the day for the kids was a trip to the go-kart track. This was their first go at driving and they loved it. Annelise is an absolute maniac and raced like a madwoman, nearly bumping me off the track and almost smashing through the tire barriers at one stage when she forgot how to brake. Harrison's approach is a bit more analytical and he's plotting how he can approach and exit corners faster so that he can get around the track in the quickest time. He's hoping for a professional karting career later in life.

To finish off a big day, Harry & I sat up and watched the Wallabies run over the All Blacks (Ali & Annelise went to bed just after the national anthems). Not something that happens very often and apparently we were pretty noisy as they lost the lead and then regained to finish in front when the final whistle went. WALLABIES 34 - ALL BLACKS 19 !!!!

Sunday started with taking Harrison out to watch Gererd (one of his best friends) play rugby league. Harry is a huge sports fan but just loves rugby league, despite many attempts to convince him that rugby union is superior. During the game when Gererd had a break on the sideline, Harry got the chance to sit with him on the bench and watch the game. For a kid on warfarin, being so close to being on the field was a great buzz and one of the best parts of the morning. After the game, he took off with Gererd's family for the day and ended up indoor rock climbing. All up, one very tired boy came home.

Annelise had a much more sedate day, initially spending some time with Ali to start and then a couple of movies snuggled up under a blanket (it was a very cold day).

Ali took some time to head off to Koko Black to catch up with some friends in the afternoon and had a good old chat. This was with a group of mums that she first met when Harrison was born and they've managed to stay in touch over the past 7-8 years.

Well, that's about it for this long post. So long for now.